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Johannesburg - Doping allegations against Kenya rugby sevens team coach Paul Treu and his staff are unfounded, Treu said on Wednesday.
The South African-born coach, who successfully coached the Springbok Sevens for nine years, was accused by the Kenyan government's Anti-Doping Task Force of giving the team supplements and "concoctions" that contained banned substances.
"Treu was actually responsible in introducing a "no-supplement policy" when he arrived in Kenya to take over coaching the Sevens team in November 2013," the Kenyan Rugby Union said.
"When I arrived, players were taking typical off-the-shelf supplements. We decided -- as we'd done in South Africa -- to not endorse or advocate taking supplements of any kind, preferring to focus on proper nutrition," Treu said.
The Kenyan government's task force, led by Professor Moni Wekesa, completed its initial report in April this year. It was recently handed over to the Secretary of Sports, Arts and Culture, Hassan Wario.
Head of the Kenyan Rugby Union (KRU), Mwangi Muthee, in a statement released on Tuesday accused the task force of shoddy and misinformed work.
Treu said there had been a lack of transparency around the report, which he had not seen, and he questioned the credentials of the task force investigators.
The International Rugby Board did not recognise the agency, according to Treu.
"We know the risk of supplements as we know how easily they can cause athletes to fail tests," Treu said.
"During my time with South African rugby, we had a strict supplement policy, developed in conjunction with scientists and dieticians, specifically for this reason.
The supplement at the heart of the controversy, Evox, was brought in by the Kenyan Rugby Union a year ago, before Treu started as the Sevens coach he said.
"They handed over the supplement to the government investigators at the end of 2013. The players themselves weren't tested."
Treu said he and his coaching staff were not interviewed nor requested to provide answers to queries and they would welcome an independent investigation.
"I believe in transparency so I urge the task team to release the full report and the laboratory tests done on the supplement.
"It is incumbent on them to make public the names of the drugs, the amounts they found in the product, their benefits, if any, and their side effects so the sports industry is made fully aware of all the issues involved," Treu said.
"The comments by Professor Wekesa were highly defamatory and we, as the Kenya Sevens management, reserve all our rights," Treu said.
